The Man From Tallahassee
Guava Seed Rating: 5 "Oh no...she didn't..." Back to the continuation of the previous week's final scene, we go to Locke, Sayid, Kate, and Rousseau still watching the football game between Jack and Tom. Kate wants to know what Jack is doing but Locke shushes her because he's got 20 bucks riding on the next touchdown. Rousseau must not care much for Jack's mad football skillz because she takes off into the jungle without anyone noticing. Suddenly, Kate's eyes widen as she hears someone calling out "Jack". We cut to "The Blonde Temptress" making her way across the lawn. Jack tosses her the ball and she giggles like a schoolgirl, catching it and then passing it to Tom and making her way over to Jack. Oh brother... This is like a cheesy 1950s movie about the popular cheerleader and her football captain boyfriend. Miss Giggles matches just a little too perfectly with Dr. Giggles. Kate explains to Locke and Sayid that she's the one that helped Sawyer and her escape. JuJu touches her dreamy, stud-muffin boyfriend's arm as they chat about the upcoming pep-rally and then Jack asks her if she'll go steady with him and wear his letterman jacket. Gosh and golly, Will she accept? Not if the rebel in the bushes packing heat has anything to do with it. Kate slowly raises her rifle and levels it at the tart's perfect blonde head. But before she can get her shot off, I snap out of my morbid little fantasy and get back to the show. Kate continues to squint at the couple, a little green monster rearing it's ugly head in her eyes. Sayid finally notices that Rousseau has left and tells the others. But Locke's too busy to care. He focuses on the Prom King and Queen making their way to a house. He pulls out a pair of binoculars and watches as Ben comes out of the house in a wheelchair. Jack leans against the wall, talking with him for a moment. Ben extends his hand and Jack shakes it, the music building excitingly as we cut to shots of JuJu, a jealous Kate with her mouth hanging wide open, a confused Sayid and then Locke who finishes the scene by saying "This is going to be more complicated than we thought." Back from commercial, Kate is locking and loading her rifle. She has one goal and nothing will stop her from getting what she wants... Muffin's head on a platter errr I mean getting Jack back. Sayid wants to know if that's what her plan is... just start shooting people and hope for the best. Works for me and Kate. Even if we absolutely have to sacrifice a few blondes in the process. Kate says that she came to rescue Jack and that's what they were going to do. Sayid argues that maybe Jack doesn't want to be rescued. Kate wildly jabs her finger at Sayid. "That is not him... That is not Jack. They must have done something to him." She says that he wouldn't just forget that they kidnapped and drugged them and that she's not leaving him. She starts to head out into Otherville alone. What can I say? You do crazy things when you're in love. Luckily Locke is acting a bit more rational than he has been the last couple of episodes because he pipes up and tells Kate that "It's Jack", you know the hero of the show Jack, the one who's always thinking rationally and looking out for the best interests of everyone Jack. He thinks Jack must have a good reason for being with them and says that they should wait until it's dark and then approach Jack and get him out if he really wants out. Back to the fearless trio of Jack-rescuers, we find that it is night and Locke is still looking through his binoculars at Otherville. Suddenly Jules and Jack stroll into view. The group in the bushes watch/stalk the couple as they walk up to a door of a house. Locke looks through the binoculars again and sees Jack giggling at something JuJu said. She probably asked if he wanted her to spend the night and he got a little tickled at the absurd idea. "No thanks, Blondie, I've got a girl waiting for me back at the beach and I wouldn't throw that away for a one-night stand with some two-bit floozie." he says. Kate practically rips the binoculars out of Locke's hands as she tries to get a better look at Jack and "the little bad word". She watches Jack go inside the house and JuJu starts to leave. "Yeah, you just keep walking, Twiggy." Kate yells out after her and then sticks her tongue out. Locke gives them a plan and tells them that they are going to split up. Kate will go in the house while Locke and Sayid stand guard. "I'm going in alone?" Kate asks. Now I know Kate's a fairly smart girl but sometimes I just want to smack her. Of course you're going in alone. How else are we going to have an amazing heartfelt and tender Jate reunion if Locke and Sayid are in the corner teasing and making kissing noises at you? "It's better if you're the first one he sees." Locke says. Hallelujah... I can finally add Locke to the list of Island Jaters. He knows how Jack's mind works and he intends on enticing him with the "pretty brunette bait" to get him away from the Others. They all start off across the lawns. Kate makes it to the door Jack went in and opens it. A pretty piano melody starts floating down the hall that Kate walks into. She starts down the hall but pauses at the open door of what looks to be a bedroom. I can see that she is calculating exactly how much time she has left and if she should just go grab Jack, throw him into the bedroom and give the Jaters what they've been begging for. But she reminds herself that Jack is not Sawyer and it would take Jack a hell of a lot longer in there than it took Sawyer in the cage. So with a disappointed sigh she continues on. She rounds the corner and sees Jack sitting at the piano, gently pressing the ivory keys. She immediately starts to rethink giving up her plan to take him in the bedroom as she watches him, entranced with the image. Suddenly Jack turns around to see his other half, standing no more than 10 feet away from him. Kate's breathing is shallow and ragged as she whispers "Hi" to him. "What are you doing here?" he asks, his voice shaking. She puts down her rifle and moves forward to take him in her arms and explains that she came to get him. Jack's eyes flash wildly, scared out of his mind for her. "Get out of here. Go." he says. She protests. "Kate, they're watching me." he yells looking up at a camera. "I'm not leaving you here." she says. "Yes you are." he says, giving us basically a replay of the walkie-talkie scene. When will you just accept the fact that you fell in love with a stubborn mule, Jack? She's not gonna give up on you. But before Kate can protest again, the Dharma Initiative SWAT Team bursts through the door, guns trained on Kate. Is it like some universal law with the writers of this show that whenever Jate is together, they must be interrupted and separated. Does the hotness that is Jate cause spontaneous combustion if they are left alone for too long? I guess this is why they left Skate together for an entire 6 friggin episodes. There was no danger of spontaneous combustion there. So the Interruption Squad grabs Kate and forces her to the ground. "Don't hurt her! Don't hurt her!" Jack yells desperately as one of the men points a gun at Jack. Kate cries out in pain as some more men bring a handcuffed Sayid in and force him to the ground too. "Jack... Jack...." Kate yells. "Who else is with you?" one of the Others asks Kate. "Just answer the question Kate." Jack says, his heart breaking and his eyes begging her to cooperate so she wouldn't get hurt. Kate lies and says that nobody else was with them. She looks over at Sayid and then back up to Jack, who looks away, probably because she's giving him a really nice view down her shirt and he's too much of a gentleman to take advantage. Squee!!! The next scene we see is the scene that caused the collective squee heard around the world. The Jater's time has finally come... after almost a year of suffering through fishbiscuits and strawberries, through skisses and skex, through grilled cheese and brandings.... we have finally made it. So with hearts thumping louder than the TV, we see Kate sitting on the edge of a pool table in what looks to be a recreation room. She is struggling to get her handcuffed hands out from behind her back and around her legs. She rolls over onto the pool table and onto her back. Jater's eyes roll straight back into their heads at the magnificence of the new Jexing site. Yes, after blowing up our couches, shower, kitchen counters, bunkbeds and keeping them seperated in the aquarium, TPTB have graciously decided to bestow upon us one of the hottest Jexing sites that any of our Jex devotees could even dare to dream up. Kate flips herself back up and works on getting the handcuffs around her feet. The girl is certainly flexible. Jack will need to keep that in mind. Just as Kate gets her hands back around front, the side door opens. Kate's eyes widen and she looks up guiltily. She sees Tom staring back at her, a small smile playing on his lips. Either he's impressed with her tenacity to keep trying to escape or he's a hardcore Jater and knows what's going to happen next. "I didn't think I'd see you again so soon Kate." he says. Kate just pouts cutely back at him. Tom turns around and then tells somebody to "be careful in here" as he points to his ear, letting us all know that the Others are listening. "Thanks." a voice says. Jack comes around the door, oddly enough NOT wearing scrubs but instead wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that make a whole lot more sense than him wearing scrubs. So anyways, Jack comes in wearing his jeans and then the Heavens open, birds sing out, wars are halted, feuding families make up, children everywhere laugh and play in glee, and the world is at peace. Jate are together again. LIFE IS GOOD! Jack walks over to a chair and picks it up and turns it around, straddling it and crossing his arms in front of him. Kate sits on the edge of the jex table, not moving at all. "Did they hurt you?" Jack says, trying to force the lump out of his throat at the thought. Kate (along with most of the Jaters) finally takes her first breath since seeing him walk in. "No...They hurt you?" she asks. He laughs a little, finding himself falling deeper in love with her, if that was at all possible. "No." he says shaking his head. Kate looks around and then pushes herself off the jex table to the collective Boo of the Jaters. "What is all this?" she asks. "This is where they live." he says. "And the people they took.." she pauses. "the kids..." "They're all safe." he says. "Safe?" she replies skeptically. Jack raises his eyebrows at her and she cocks her head. "So you're with them now?" He lowers his eyes sadly and shakes his head. "I'm not with anyone, Kate." "What did they do to you?" she says moving forward in front of him, her voice breaking. "Nothing." he says. It's very interesting that TPTB basically did a reverse of their "through the glass meeting" from "I Do." You can't tell me that they use even half of all the little subtleties and nuances that they put into ALL Jate scenes into ANY Skate scene. It's just not there. Jate is a cosmic, deeply meaningful, time and space-altering relationship versus a soap opera fling. Jate will last throughout the ages... Sorry, back to the scene... Kate asks why Jack is acting like this then if they didn't do anything to him. "I came here to help you, so why don't you just tell me..." she yells. "I told you not to come back here for me." he yells back, making her stop. "I didn't think you meant it." she spats at him. Jack looks down, trying to blink away fresh tears. He's doing his best to try and keep his distance with her but it's not working, she's already in his heart. He composes himself and then looks back up to her. She has her head tilted to the side... the separation between them killing her. She slowly walks forward and moves her hands on top of his. He tenses for a moment, the feeling of their skin touching one another making him afraid that he will lose his nerve to do what he has to do. His hand curls around hers and squeezes it. She kneels down in front of him, their faces closer than they've ever been except for in the net and during the Jiss. I can't believe the progress that they are showing with each other. They were so timid in the first and second season and know they are practically straddling each other. Don't even go there. Not yet anyways.... Their foreheads lean close together but alas, their cowardice starts to show and neither one will move that last quarter of an inch to bring their foreheads completely together. Jack continues to swallow and blink his eyes. He's not doing a very good job of showing his non-caring position that he's trying to portray to the Others. "What did they do to you, Jack?" Kate whispers, locking eyes with him. His eyes go back and forth over hers, reading her like a novel. "I made a deal with them." he says, "They're going to let me go." "Where?" she asks, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion. He smiles slightly and then replies "Home." She nods and smiles a tiny bit, blinking back tears and biting her lip to keep herself from crying out.... "But I'm your home... home is where the heart is... and you've got a home right here." Instead she controls herself and asks him when he's leaving. "First thing in the morning." He leans closer to her ear and says "I can bring back help." She shakes her head furiously. "You trust these people... They are LIARS... Why would you believe..." He cuts her off by saying "I trust them because you told me to Kate. When you asked me to save Sawyer's life." He looks down, not able to bring himself to look her in the eyes. Kate's eyes widen a bit in recognition and she gets her "OH SNAP" moment. Jack knows about what happened in the dirty bear cage. And you can tell she was dreading this day... the day she would have to look into the eyes of the man whose heart she broke and tell him that it was a mistake... that the other guy means nothing to her and beg him to forgive her, even though he already has. "Jack." she pleads and then narrows her eyes. "What did they tell you?" As in... did they tell you it was just pity-sex, did they tell you I was thinking of you the whole time, did they tell you the thought of it makes me sick to my stomach, did they tell you I couldn't even get there without thinking of your eyes looking into mine and your fingers touching me. Their eyes lock and Jack seems like he is about to lean in... when... Yep, you guessed it.... the hotness that is Jate had to have its interruption. This time our interruption is brought to you courtesy of the "Man-Stealing Witch." So as I pelt my TV with various fruits, the witch pokes her moronic little head in the door. "Jack, We need to go." she says as Jack turns to look at her, breaking up our almost-Jissing, finger-interlocking couple. Kate shakes her head and closes her eyes in disappointment. "I'll be right there." Jack says. Juliet taps her claws on the door a few times before finally giving up and retreating, taking off on her broom with an evil cackle. Jack turns back to Kate and we get one nice shot of their fingers joined together in a perfect union. Kate pulls back and turns away, burying her head in her hands. "I asked you not to come back here for me and I wish... I wish that you hadn't." Kate keeps sitting on the floor slumped over, hurt and disappointed. Jack stands up and walks around the chair and leans down to her ear. And for the second time tonight, all the Jater's eyes roll straight back into the back of their heads. How hot can this couple get... "But I will come back here for you." he whispers in a low, gravelly voice that has got to make Kate just feel like turning around and pinning him to that arcade game in the corner. Kate's breath catches, his little game of seduction obviously working for her, and she tries to contain her tears. He stands up and makes his way to the door, pausing for one moment. Neither of them will turn around though, because one look would break both of them and send them running back into each other's arms. Damn you "Stallers of Jate." When the Revolution comes, I will have your heads on a stake.